Design Challenge for E-Commerce Shipping Packaging and Logistics Cradle to Cradle Design Guidelines I. Problem Statement Internet-based companies ship millions of books, CDs, DVDs and videos each year. A large percentage of the shipping packaging associated with these purchases, primarily corrugated paperboard and plastic, ends up in landfills. Not only does this represent a significant loss of material, but in the U.S. landfills are also one of the largest manmade sources of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Internationally, packaging waste is a major concern due to limited landfill space and its environmental impact. In response to these concerns, more than twenty-eight countries, including the E.U., Japan and Canada have enacted packaging legislation to encourage the design and development of more environmentally preferable packaging. Corrugate, plastic, and various types of void fill are the materials most commonly used for e-commerce shipping packaging and for the larger parcel shipping industry. Together, corrugate and plastic represent roughly 25% of all packaging discarded in 2000. (MSW in U.S. 2000: Facts and Figures). By weight, corrugated paperboard is the most significant component of the 45 million tons of discarded containers and packaging that ended up in landfills in 2000 (MSW in U.S. 2000: Facts and Figures). While corrugated paperboard enjoys a high recovery rate for recycling, its recovery rate in the residential sector (where most e-commerce shipping packaging ends its useful ‘life’) is significantly lower than in the commercial/industrial sector. The lack of infrastructure for systematic corrugated paperboard and packaging recovery in combination with the distributed nature of residential delivery of e-commerce packages and existing consumer behavior suggests that these materials will become an increasing burden within municipal waste streams. Despite recent declines in the U.S. economy, e-commerce sales to consumers are rapidly growing and projected to be $51.48 billion, for a growth rate near 40% for 2002 (BizRate.Com). It is unclear how much of the more than 18 million packages that are handled each day by UPS and FedEx are due to e-commerce, but the number is definitely growing (Business Week. May 21, 2001). As e-commerce evolves, it seems likely that certain products will dematerialize into an Internet-based flow of electrons with no need for packaging. However, for those products that continue to need packaging, Cradle to Cradle Design provides a comprehensive vision of how the materials and systems used for e-commerce packaging can be redesigned and integrated to produce a more sustainable flow of packaging services. E-commerce presents an ideal opportunity for system-wide implementation of innovative packaging solutions due to its dependence on highly integrated technology for product distribution and returns. E-commerce is strategically oriented to respond to the needs of the domestic and global marketplace. As international measures move towards extended producer responsibility, fees, and design for environment criteria, competitive participation will increasingly mean working throughout the packaging and logistics supply chain to ensure that the entire life cycle of packaging services addresses these issues. Cradle to Cradle Design Challenge for E-Commerce Shipping Packaging and Logistics II. Introduction to Cradle to Cradle Design Cradle to Cradle Design is a system of thinking based on the belief that human design can approach the effectiveness and elegance of natural systems by learning from nature and incorporating its patterns. Industry can be transformed into a sustaining enterprise—one that creates economic, ecological, and social value— through thoughtful and intentional design that mirrors the safe, regenerative productivity of nature and eliminates the concept of waste.1 Background: The Cradle-to-Grave Legacy Manufacturing systems of the Industrial Revolution are based on a one-way, cradle- to-grave stream of materials—a model that takes, makes, and wastes. Materials are mined and refined, products are assembled, distributed, used by consumers, and then discarded to landfills or incinerators. Each step in this stream typically creates Take unintended environmental and health impacts. The advent of modern industrial processes has had the added consequence of making many processes and materials more toxic. Today, the legacy of the cradle-to-grave model is routine headline news, profoundly affecting the air we breathe, the water we drink, the climate we live in, the diseases we suffer from, and global politics. In response to widespread environmental degradation, governments and industries have adopted a strategy known as “eco-efficiency”—minimizing waste, pollution, Make and natural resource depletion. Many companies have realized significant cost savings and reduced environmental impacts by embracing eco-efficiency. But long- term prosperity depends not on the efficiency of a fundamentally destructive, cradle-to-grave system. It depends on the effectiveness of processes designed to be sustaining, healthy and renewable in the first place. Waste A New Paradigm: Cradle to Cradle Design Cradle to Cradle Design offers an alternative. It rejects the assumption that human industry inevitably destroys the natural world, or that the demand for goods and services is the ultimate cause of environmental ills. Instead, it embraces abundance, human ingenuity, and positive aspirations. Today, with our growing knowledge of the living earth, our designs can reflect a new spirit. Cradle to Cradle Design incorporates this new ecological awareness at every level of human endeavor. Its principles are built on the intelligence, abundance, and effectiveness of natural systems—the flows of energy and nutrients that support the Earth’s biodiversity. Emulating Nature’s Material and Energy Flows Nature’s ecosystems function on some key principles that human design can emulate. First, there is no “waste” in nature; the waste from one organism provides nutrients for another. Second, all life on earth is fueled by solar energy. Third, life thrives on diversity, constantly adapting to fill niches. Cradle to Cradle Design models human industry on these natural principles. It envisions a world powered by the sun where growth is good, waste nutritious, and productive diversity enriches human and natural communities. The application of cradle-to-cradle principles to industry creates cyclical material flows (cradle-to-cradle rather than cradle-to-grave) that, like the earth’s nutrient cycles, eliminate the concept of waste. Each material in a product is designed to be safe and effective, and to provide high quality resources for subsequent generations 1 Cradle to Cradle Design is based on principles of Industrial Ecology and Design for Environment (DfE). Similar to industrial ecology, materials and energy flows are conceived as ‘metabolisms’ and like DfE, it proposes that we design with the environment in mind, considering all phases of the product life cycle. © 2003, MBDC Page 2 of 11 Cradle to Cradle Design Challenge for E-Commerce Shipping Packaging and Logistics of products. All materials are conceived as nutrients, circulating safely and productively in one of two “metabolisms”—the biological metabolism and the technical metabolism. The Biological Metabolism The biological metabolism is the system of natural processes that support life. These processes include the degradation of organic materials and their incorporation into organisms—cyclical, and ultimately fueled by sunlight. Materials that contribute to the productivity of the metabolism are biological nutrients. Ideally, products of human industry designed from biodegradable, ecologically safe materials participate in the biological metabolism after use through decomposition. Example: Upholstery Fabric Upholstery fabrics, which wear out with use, can be designed from biological nutrients that can be returned to ecosystems after use. Climatex® Lifecycle™ fabric is an example of this type of product. The fabric is a blend of pesticide-residue-free wool and organically grown ramie, dyed and processed entirely with non-toxic chemicals. All its product and process inputs were defined and selected for their human and ecological safety within the context of a biological metabolism. Currently, the fabric trimmings (process ‘waste’) are used by garden clubs as mulch for growing fruit and vegetables, returning the textile’s biological nutrients to feed new growth. The return of Climatex Lifecycle’s nutrients to the biological metabolism depends on its appropriate application and post-use handling. The design must facilitate the clean separation of the fabric from materials that cannot function as biological nutrients, like synthetic foams. Substances used to treat and clean the fabric should also be compatible with the biological metabolism. Finally, the post- use cycling of the fabric’s nutrients will likely rely on a well run composting system. © 2003, MBDC Page 3 of 11 Cradle to Cradle Design Challenge for E-Commerce Shipping Packaging and Logistics The Technical Metabolism Industry can also be modeled after natural processes to create technical metabolisms, systems that productively cycle industrial materials. These materials, valuable for their performance qualities and typically ‘non-renewable,’ are technical nutrients, designed to circulate safely and perpetually through cradle-to-cradle product life cycles of production, use, recovery, and re-manufacture.